On Tuesday [Dec. 4] former ambassador John Negroponte visited the Miller Center to discuss America’s role in the world, President Trump’s take on foreign policy, and his own 40-year experience. WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini reports.
John Negroponte has been the ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations, and Iraq. He was also Deputy national security advisor to President Ronald Reagan, and the first Director of national intelligence under President George W. Bush. But he also worked under George H. W. Bush – and so he started the conversation by giving a few words on the late President.
JOHN NEGROPONTE: For George Bush, I think, a lot of foreign policy and a lot of his life was about relationships. He cultivated them, he nurtured them - and I’m not saying in some kind of superficial or, you know, just a guy who cares about his rolodex - no: somebody who really cared about other people, and he reflected that not only in his personal life but in his conduct of relations with other countries.
Fast-forward to today. Now, at the halfway point of the Trump administration, what does John Negroponte think about the state of American foreign policy?
NEGROPONTE: It’s a little bit like a fire or a flood going through your house, and it really boils down to the question of "How much damage has really been done?" Well, I don’t think it’s a total loss, and I think it can be fixed.